Pee deflecting paint considered by council

Pam has been at the Daily Mercury since March 2013 and has also worked as a journalist in Batemans Bay and Wellington both in NSW. And yes, that does make her a Blues supporter. Growing up she moved around different places including Sydney, Moree, Wollongong and lived for about two years as a high school student on a small island in Micronesia called Pohnpei. Pam loves water sports, including SCUBA diving, snorkelling and kayaking but her awful balance means she’ll never touch a surf board. Ever...

GETTING splashed with your own urine is typically not ideal but it could become a reality if you decide to tinkle in public.

A creative way to deter public urinators by using a special type of repellent paint to splash liquid back onto the leaker is being discussed within the Gold Coast council.

And it's got authorities talking about whether it would be effective.

The idea comes from the German city of Hamburg that uses the paint in the St Pauli nightclub district.

The paint is featured on walls in the city and splashes urine back onto people who pee in public.

Queensland Hotels Association chief executive officer Justin O'Connor said public urination was a problem across the state.

He said while the paint idea would work as a deterrent to public urination, he said the problem came down to a lack of toilet facilities.

"We've been concerned for many years about public urination and the incidence of public urination has actually spiked in the last five years in the high traffic and high density entertainment precincts," Mr O'Connor said.

He said only licensed premises operating under a hotel licence were required to provide toilet facilities.

He said more toilet facilities were needed in businesses and in public areas.

"Our basic commonsense approach is if businesses are putting liquid into a person, they should have a capacity to take liquid out of a person."

Many large licensed premises also have an obligation to maintain the amenity and the business's surrounding areas, and often this includes cleaning up mess, Mr O'Connor said.

He said a hotel would typically employ someone to hose down areas and clean up early the next morning.

"The issue of public urination is a concern for a number of reasons," Mr O'Connor said. "We're concerned about it from the reputation and safety point of view but it's not a solution that any particular party can solve on their own."

Public urination has been a hot topic in the Queensland Parliament and Speaker Peter Wellington hopes to bring it up with the new Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath.

Last year Mr Wellington told Parliament there were problems with the legal process involved in charging someone for urinating in public.

He said there had been examples where a person had tried to find public toilets but they had been locked and had tried to relieve themselves discreetly but had still been charged.

"People have been charged and found guilty, even though people have used reasonable steps, and not flaunting themselves and not being a real public nuisance, to relieve themselves in a discreet way," Mr Wellington said.

He said he would raise with Ms D'Ath the idea of police discretion when there were no public toilet facilities available.